Ballad of the Necromancer
by Bahne-156
Summary: The story of a war torn world shaped by the power and ego of a dark god.
1. Chapter 1: Sunset

Chapter

"Jake, I know the shame that your father has brought on you is great. But I will offer you a chance to redeem yourself and your families name" the king said as his gnarled fingers gripped the handle of his cane, Jake Bluto, one of the youngest soldiers of his army, kneeled low enough in front of this king, that the king himself couldn't even see jakes face. They spoke inside the depths of castle Das'rel, considered by many of the city to be the most terrifying place imaginable. No good word was spoken of their king, or the iron fist he controlled his territory these angered voices only spoke in hushed whispers out of fear of the city guard.

"What is your offer Lord Das'rel? Tell me so I may redeem my families honor" Jake said through gritted teeth, though he hated the fact he still was tethered to the army of this dying man. He hated the idea of redeeming his father even more.

"there are rumors in the air" lord Das'rel said through his toothless grin "a kobold army is growing to the north, I want you to take care of it without alerting suspicion from the rest of the army, if you can do this, I will lift the burdens that have been placed on your family, and you will be free of me. Your servitude will end if you can bring me the head of their wizard."

"why his head?" Jake said caring more out of curiosity then some distorted sense of duty

"the kobolds living to the north the one of the few things that keeps me from overthrowing the many provinces to the north, his head would also prove to me that you are a proper servant, and will do as I bid you to do" he smiled" with them gone, it is only a matter of time before my power will stretch from one side of the continent of Griffenford to the other" the king said with a wicked grin, even in his old age he was still mad for power it would seem. Around him sat trophies of the many kingdoms, fiefdoms, and province he had conquered and pillaged in his sixty five year rule. All these lands his prison, and he the warden. Even within the walls of the city of Das'rel, not a soul could leave, even travellers were caught in his web, merchants and vagabonds now crowded the city as they had come to peddle their goods and were soon ensnared and never released.

"sire, if you don't mind me saying …our empire already stretches for more then half of this land, only bogs, mountains and temples to Pelors knights lay beyond our control, why claim these wretched lands?" Jake knew he was out of line for asking his king such a question, and the king replied in his typical fashion, he waved over two of his knights clad in their silvery armor, who quickly grabbed Jake by his shoulders."Speak out of turn like that again Jake Bluto. And I will carve your tongue from your mouth without a second thought" the king then motioned for the guards to remove him from his chambers. They led Jake straight outside and latched the gate behind him.

"he expects me to take on a whole horde of kobold alone?" he said staring into the vile thief ridden city, a stark contrast at the foot of the beauty of the castle. "I lack the ability or know how to take on a battalion of those vile dragon kin. Jake what have you gotten yourself into?" he said miserably

A caravan of ragged wagons covered in thick colorful banners rolled towards the city walls. The city guard lulled from their collective boredom. Approached the coach at the head of the line of carts

"what have he got here? A circus?" the guard said behind the safety of his heavy steel helmet

"not a circus my good sir, THE circus!" the portly man from inside the cart fired back suddenly "this is the Mahou Circus Extravaganza, my acts are all from the furthest reaches of the globe. No other act like mine in the whole world" he said primping his suit trying to hide the holes that had been eaten in it by moths

"is that so?" the guard said with a laugh

"none like it in the world" he reiterated

"fair enough, so Mr- the guard began

"Mahou, Wesley Bartholomew Mahou"

"odd name" the guard laughed

"none like it in the world" Wesley laughed back

"so why bring this….magnificent of a circus to our fair city?" the guard said trying to hold in his laughter

"none like it in the world" Wesley said as he snapped the reins to the horse that pulled his coach

The guards opened the gates, knowing full well that this "extravaganza" was now trapped within their walls, And would stay trapped for as long as the king saw fit.

At the back of the wagons sat the performer's carts. And as Wesley promised they were from all sides of the world. Some of them used the circus as a way to hide from authority some using it just as a way of life, and still some that tagged along just for the adventure. The last wagon in the trail housed only four souls, the smallest number of any of the carts. Lillia an elven women who worked as the fortune teller of the Circus, her adopted sister dusk, a catfolk acrobat who was using the Circus to hide from authorities currently hunting her, hunting her for the crimes of a life she once led as a thief, And lastly in the corner of the room sharpening the edge of his sabre, the Circus's animal tamer, Aust Vann Thallenmasser, a Desert elf from the far off continent of Rust. Next to him a native of his continent, an orange furred cheetah named Marilia, his companion through all of his travels, these four friends were by far the most foreign to these lands.

"the guard's aren't going to let us leave the city" Lillia said as the gates closed behind them

"Not let us out, my ass!" dusk said in a humph "we'll see what they say after they taste these" dusk said as repeatedly extended and retracted her claws. Lillia smiled as she began running a brush through dusks white coat of fur. Dusk was small,standing only a little more then three feet tall. Her humanoid form was covered in a cats white fur, complete with black face was shaped in a roughly feline form as well, complete with whiskers and the high pointed ears of a kitten. Her gloved hands and bare feet took on the rounded shape of a cats paws complete with the aforementioned claws. Lastly hanging loosely out the back of her acrobats outfit was a long tail covered in the same white fur as her body.

"Violence isn't going to be what gets us to safety, at least not violence from you, dusk" Lillia said with a genuine smile

"well it should, I'm getting sick of being so bored, there's nothing to do in this circus" dusk said relaxing against the bristles of the brush as they scratched her ear

"Grow bored of it all you like kitten, its home and its your life now" Vann said stoic as always

"Easy for you to say, you've never tasted the pleasure that the open road can offer" dusk said pulling away from Lillia

"Tasted its pleasures, no, drowned in its wrath. Yes." Vann said, suddenly sounding more upset then serious

"As I've said before, I came to this country searching for a sword that was stolen from my family generations ago, through all of my searching and prayers I was guided here to this land. Yet the more I look the farther I feel I have gone off course." He lifted the Falchion he had been sharpening into the air "the blade I hold is the sister to the one I seek. Within the blade I seek is the soul of one of my ancestors; he was sealed forever in its edge as his final wish. So that forever he may stay on the battlefield which he loved"

"no matter how many times I hear it, it surely is a beautiful story" Lillia said smiling at Vann

"more like a boring story" dusk said, now clearly just trying to set off Vann

"Thank you lillia" Vann said glaring at dusk "maybe within these city walls we will find something that links us to the end of all of our voyages"

"I'm sure you will" Lillia said

it was clear to dusk by now that there was more between Lillia and this desert elf then they were letting on. She knew Lillia was just hiding it out of embarrassment. Lillia viewed the diminutive dusk as her little sister, perhaps to replace the little sister she had lost.

Over a hundred years ago Lillia had told her, more then dusk could imagine as she was still only 18 years old, Lillia's village was attacked by a colossal green dragon, its seething rage at the towns refusal to leave their forest home, drove it into a rage, a rage that destroyed everything in site, ripping the buildings from their foundations and drowning the people of the town in its chlorine gas desperation and panic for the safety of her family, a young Lillia tried to wake her mother and father but they had already died from the gas, she ran in fear for her little sister's room in hopes she was still alive. But just before she got to the room, the dragon's tower like legs kicked through her sister's wall, its eyes set on killing one of the few still remaining alive. Lillia seeing the dragon destroy the wall and fearing her sister dead, screamed in panic, but the insidious dragons fear scared her more then even the loss of her family could. She found herself running as fast as her little legs could carry her, she ran and ran, for days she told dusk, until she arrived at mahou's circus where she has lived ever sense.

And with this thought Dusk sat up from the chair in front of Lillia

"Is everything okay sis?" Lillia asked setting the hair brush on her lap

"Nothings wrong, I just want to see what the city looks like" she said through a fake smile, as she climbed out the wagons window and up onto the roof of the cart. The city was much larger then she imagined, and the wind was now rushing through her white fur. She sighed aloud. She really wanted to stay for Lillia who had been so lonely all these years, but at the same time her instincts told her that her life was on the road.

"maybe she'll be happy if she just stays with the desert elf" she mumbled to herself, trying to sort out her thoughts. She saw the way they looked at each other. The way Vann went out of his way to be with her. Maybe it was better if dusk did leave.

"everyone leaves their families someday, maybe its time for me to leave this one too" she said to herself through yet another sigh

"too young are you to be so sad" she heard Vann say from behind her, she spun around out of sheer surprise to see him, the sickle he used to tame his animals in one hand and his falchion in its scabbard strapped to his back, His long red hair blowing in the wind behind him.

"Far too thoughtless are you to think you can sneak up on a thief" Dusk shot back

"Hide your sadness with your feigned annoyance as much as you wish" Vann said coldly in return, dusk turned, defeated, and watched the city pass by as the wagons rolled through. It would be night fall soon and the caravan began to pull to a halt in the town square. Nightfall, she thought, the time for her and Vann to go hunting through the town for what ever excitement they could find.

She knew Vann was a kind soul, and in the years they had travelled together she found his company to be enjoyable. He was a bright and happy person, even if he hid it behind a veil of secrecy and seclusion. Maybe that's just how desert people are she had told herself time and time again.

She knew from the little he had told her and Lillia that he had came here with Marilia by boat a decade or so ago, short in the narrative of an elf. Searching for the lost treasure of his family, a sword with the soul of his ancestor sealed inside. It was said the sword could see things that not even the greatest of sages could see. Vann had made a living as a ranch hand and doing other odd jobs while he was on his quest.

Eventually he wound up with some trouble from a guild of thieves. four members of the guild beat and tortured the young desert elf and left him for dead in an alley, Stealing all but the clothes on his back in the process. A few months before hand, dusk had been part of this guild. She had left when her mission was to kill her mentor, the one person who had taken her in when no one else would. Instead of completing her mission and moving higher up in the rank of these thieves', she ran, she ran as fast as her paws could carry her.

Now she found herself being chased by her former allies, their lust for power overtaking the feelings of comradely that they had once shared. As she ran, hiding from not only the authorities but also her former friends, she secretly had been watching this red headed foreign elf traverse through the city for sometime, his rare weapon amazed her, and the thought of how much gold a sword from such a far off land would fetch on the local market was a tempting thought indeed. The night before Vann had been attacked, she had broken into the Inn he had been staying at, and stole the sabre without vann even waking from his slumber. But now as she turned to leave, knowing the damage her old guild could inflict on someone they set out to kill.

it was then, at that moment. That dusk realized that, though at times her line of work forced her to participate in some rather malevolent acts, to maim and leave an innocent man to die, was below anything she could tolerate. She ran back to the abandoned warehouse that she used as her hideout, a place she hated even more then the streets themselves, its air rich with the stench of mold and excrement. She walked over to the small number of items she kept in an old crate and took out the mans falchion, it was the only thing she considered of worth in the small number of items she had accumulated these past few months, and ran back to make sure the foreign elf didn't die of his injuries.

When she found him though, he was far from dead. She saw light spring from his hands healing the wounds on his tan arms and legs. Within moments he seemed to be back to full strength. It was as if he hadn't been attacked at all.

"bring me my weapon…I trust that you aren't a member of those bandits?" he asked cold and calmly to the small cat folk that carried the large weapon to him. His mouth still wet with his own blood, his voice still horse from the screams he let loose while the band of rouges shot him over, and over again with their arrows.

"you sense correctly, although I once was" dusk said as she approached him. He stood, leaving what was surely the largest amount of blood dusk had ever seen, pooled at his feet.

His was an odd breed, desert elves. Standing almost as tall as a human, and just as muscular, with hair as red as the blood he left behind on the streets of the alley. Tanned skin covering toned muscular bodies that seemed all but covered with white ceremonial tattoos, His long elven ears covered tip to tip in a multitude of piercings, another right of adulthood, much like his tattoos, she was later an understanding of the land as something truly sacred and wonderful, something that was lost on most races of Galea.

"so, former bandit, have you come to watch while I reclaim my honor?" Vann said after strapping the sheathed falchion to his back. She noticed then that he wore few clothes and little armor what so ever. And even the tatters of cloth he had on had been badly torn in the attack her past allies had moments ago completed.

"Surely you aren't going to fight them?" dusk said confused by his actions. Did he mean to fight the thieves who had wronged him? He wore thin looking leather armor only over his right arm, and left forearm. Beyond that all he wore was a silken vest that was left open, leaving his chest and upper body for the most part exposed and pants of a similar material, though they certainly covered him better then his vest did, they obviously would offer little to no resistance to a sword or an arrow shot.

"suren I shall" the desert elf said as he pressed his fingers to his lips, forming into a shape that allowed him to emit a loud whistle…which quickly caught the attention of the bandits who were still fleeing the scene of their crime. The four of them came running back towards the small alley way, two stood in front of vann, and two more stood behind those two, using their friends as cover while they lifted their crossbows high into the air.

"guess he aint had enough" one of the four men that dusk had once known as a friend, said as he pulled the morning star strapped to his hip up ready to fight again. The two men in front came running at him while the two in back readied their cross bows, ready to strike Vann down before he had a chance to even know what peril he had surely got himself into. But before the men holding the bows had a chance to even load their bolts, they felt the horrifying pain of having their hamstring ripped right out of their bodies. Sheer horror filled them as they fell seeing the sight of an exotic giant cat, its mouth rimmed with their blood, looming deathlike above them.

"by gods!" screamed the man who had previously been so intent on smashing in Vann's head with his morning star, he now had stopped, and stared in horror as the giant cat gored and disfigured the bodies of his comrades.

"Your first mistake" Vann said as he walked towards the man, now looking away from him, and wrapped his sickle around the mans throat and pulled hard, relieving the man of roughly thirty pounds of useless flesh and bone. His other hand quickly found the sword dusk had returned to him, on his back and pulled it from its scabbard.

"now its only you and me it would seem" Vann said staring fire into the eyes of the odd man out, who hadn't been killed by his cheetah nor himself…yet. Vann felt the soft brush of fur as dusk ran up beside him and drew from her back the bow she had used to perpetrate these kinds of crime mere months before. Now ready to bring it to his aid.

"Make that you versus, us" dusk said pulling the bow string taut

"TRAITOR!" the man wailed in protest, his former associate now aligned with a desert traveler who was easily more skilled as a fighter then he, stood in front of him, and to his flank a strange tiger lusting for his blood.

"no, thank you for the help child. But let me take care of this" vann said putting the sickle into its oddly shaped scabbard at his hip.

"CHILD! Im an adult thank you very much!" dusk said in protest, reluctantly pulling her bow down out of its firing position. She saw that it didn't matter what she said, the desert elf couldn't even hear her. His eyes were glassy now as he recited ancient words now holding his free hand over his sword, the white tattoos covering his body seemed to glow with some internal fire, then just as they lost their light she saw the entirety of his sword enveloped in a burst of fire, though she could feel the heat, it didn't even sting the hand that held it.

"a wizard!" the thieves both yelped in surprise, the cheetah behind the man that Vann had now clearly marked as his enemy , was growling to keep it, and its masters prey from moving.

"close" Vann said with a smirk, his eyes still rimmed with a deep internal flame "my people prefer to call me a druid!" Vann yelled as he launched himself forward, his swords flaming form slicing the bandit clean in two, his sickle off his hip suddenly made the halves into thirds as the sickle beheaded the lifeless form. Vann stood motionless as the blood poured from the disfigured corpse that lay behind him.

Dusk, horrified, could hardly find her footing. She would later remember this as the moment she decided that the life as a thief was too dangerous even for someone who craved excitement and who crawled in the shadows as she did. Because if someone who had seemed as no more then a dirty tramp could turn out to wield the very power of nature itself in such a way as this, then it might be safer to explore the wilds of the world, not the towering walls of the city.

"this is why you are a child to me" Vann said after a moment of silence as he wiped the blood from his cheetahs mouth "so fickle your heart to betray your companions like you did. Although I trust the soul of a rouge to still house the same moral compass as anyone else in this world"

"then you sir are the one who is a child" dusk said as she placed the bow back onto her back "to think everyone has the same naive view of the world as yourself" dusk said a smile creeping across her whiskered face. Vann spun around quickly removing the smile from her face as he wrapped his sickle around her neck, close enough that dusk could smell the blood of her fellow thieves still staining its blade.

"then if I am so naïve, why did you offer to protect me?" Vann said, calm and stoic as always "because I was the winning party? Or was it that you felt some form of guilt for robbing me? Or was it that you felt sorry for the me as I lay in this alley gagging on my own blood?" Vann whispered as his Falchion came out to accompany his sickle

"I now see your point" dusk said, her head foggy and unsure of the correct answer with such sharp edges pressed so close to her furred skin

"so you call me naïve?" vann said lowering the blades, sheathing both in one fluid motion

"well to believe that the world all is guided by one moral compass, yes I believe that to be naïve" dusk said, her courage returned now that her throat was away from the curved blades.

"then perhaps the two of us can learn from one another" Vann said calmly

"learn how?" dusk said, curious as to the mans meanings

"I can learn of the different views of the world that the people of this society seem to share, and from me you can learn all the good that this world has to offer" Vann said, a rare smile creeping across his lips

"sure beats getting killed for being a traitor by my old guild" dusk said with a laugh as she reached her paw out to shake the hand of this strange Desert Druid

From that point on, dusk followed the young desert elf and his companion, later learned to be named Aust Vann Thallenmasser and Marilia respectively. They traveled far and wide through the vast emptiness, as he searched for the heirloom that was rightly his. After many months they came upon a circus that was under attack by Orc raiders. The three came to the rescue of the performers and all else who called the caravan their home. And were rewarded with passage and room and board with the caravan, a reward they liked so much they decided to live there for the remainder of the next two years.

But now dusk wasn't sure if it was a good idea to keep the safe life she had grown accustomed to, and to a larger extent bored of. Or to return to the life of excitement and horror that she had left behind two years ago, when she witnessed her former companion sliced in to thirds by a magical flaming saber and a small crescent moon shaped knife. The choice seems easy to a soul unspoiled by the mysterious aroma of adventure, but to dusk, this decision was almost impossible.


	2. Chapter 2: Nightfall

Chapter 2: nightfall

Jake sat at the bar, drowning his sorrow and self pity in stale ale. The bartender here knew him well enough, Jake had started more then his fair share of fights here and had spent more then one night asleep on the floor of the tavern. This was jakes home away from home, the blind crow, not a fouler bar in a hundred miles.

"what's got ya down this time Jake? Nother gurl ran off?" Travis the bartender said while he washed a few of the empty flagons that lay strewn across the bar

"its just I feel trapped, what with this whole kobold thing, ya know?" Jake said, his voice slurring under the influence of more then a gallon of alcohol

"hey man, I thinks you've prolly had enough, I mean king told ya not to talk about that K-O-B-O-L-D thing" Travis said spelling the word out as to not say the word again

"shit man, you know I cant spell!" Jake said suddenly enraged slamming his mug of ale hard enough to shatter it against the bar"man I'm so sick of you and the king mocking me!" Jake screamed while pulling his soldiers claymore out of its scabbard on his hip

"damn man, you betta put that thin down or imma have to put one-a my crossbows bolts through yo head!" Travis yelled reaching under the bar to grab his bow. Jake quickly changed targets and got a running start smashing random tables with either his fist or the sword in his right hand. By that point most of the customers in the tavern had left and headed for the city streets in fear of the drunken oaf of a soldier, all but two people at the back of the building. Both nestled into a back corner eating a cooked bird of some sort and drinking from two small glasses of wine.

"What's you twos problem!" Jake yelled as he started towards the table "think your better then me?" Jake said lifting his sword into the air. Both of the customers wore cloaks, one an unusually tan elf, and the other one wore a hood over their head, but was short enough that Jake guessed it to be a Halfling or little person of some sort.

"sir I suggest you leave me and my friend alone lest we have to draw arms up against you" the elf said, his swarm of earrings jingling like two tambourines as he turned his head to face the brute

"Damned elves" Jake said lifting his sword high into the air "your kind always think they be knowin' everything!" he shouted as he brought his blade down, smashing the table in two, spilling their wine and destroying the small bird they were enjoying as their dinner

"We warned you" dusk said whimsically as she pulled back her hood and threw her cloak to the floor

"MONSTER!" Jake and Travis the bartender yelled as they saw the cat like humanoid launch herself at jakes face. Travis ran for the door in fear, Jake in his drunken state, merely fumbled and fell to the floor, dropping his sword in the process.

"DUSK!" Vann yelled getting up from his seat, wiping the crumbs and splinters from his cloak

"oh come on!" dusk yelled extending her claws as she stood over the drunken oaf "it would be so easy" she said with a hiss

"easy is not what we are looking for" Vann said as he walked over, his falchion already drawn glowing with a radiant light, Vann had blessed the sabre with a light spell. A trick he had used more then once now to fool people into thinking his blade a magical weapon. "I sense something; this man is the person we are looking for"

"we were looking for someone?" dusk said confused "did Lillia say something?"

"yes, she said that someone's violence would lead us to our journeys end" Vann said aiming his blade towards the drunken slob "tell us your name sir." Vann demanded

"my…my name….my name is- Jake tried to get out, fear of the magic blade and the vicious cat girl evident in his shuddering voice, but he was unsuccessful in finishing his sentence, as he soon began to vomit just as suddenly, passed out.

"The Blind Crow, Not a fouler bar in a hundred miles"

Jake awoke with a start as he felt his head disappear below a foot or two of freezing cold water.

"you awake now?" Vann said while pulling the man's head out of the fountain, his eyes like two white lights in the darkness of the city at night.

"DAMNED ELVES" Jake screamed again. Jake silence himself suddenly as he realized where he was. He was standing over the fountain in the cities square. The tan skin elf behind holding him by his hair with one hand, a crescent shaped knife in the other, the cat girl standing to his left with her bow taut and ready. But there was one face he didn't know, to his right was a beautiful elven women, her long brown hair meant her a wood elf if Jake remembered correctly, but never had he seen a wood elf so striking.

"Take your eyes off Lillia!" dusk yelled and Jake promptly closed his eyes. Never in his life had he been this confused, never in his life had he had this terrible of a day.

"we asked before, what is your name sir?" Vann said spinning the sickle in his hand making a horrible whooshing sound that Jake associated with what he could only hope would be a swift death.

"my name is Jake Bluto, son of Alphonse Bluto, Grandson of Balthazar Bluto!" Jake said in one big rush, his legs trembling underneath him, with the relinquishment of his name, Vann let go of the man's hair and watched him fall into the icy water of the fountain.

"is he the one Lillia?" Vann said turning to the elven women to his right

"he certainly is, he will lead you to your goal…I know it!" Lillia said with confidence they hadn't heard in a while

"how can a trembling drunk like this lead us to our goal?...and speaking of which what is this "our" crap" dusk said in a humph "last I checked I had no goal!"

"Adventure" Lillia said with a smile "I know you unhappy with the ease of life in the mahou circus, if you follow this man surely you will find the adventure your heart seeks"

"bah!" dusk said as she shrugged away her adopted sisters perfect reading. Then from the bottom of the shallow fountain Jake finally stood up, his long blond hair drenched andmatted and clinging to his head, his rage clear and evident on his face.

"where are you headed?" Vann said ignoring the mans anger with him

"DAMNED ELVES!" Jake yelled again, hearing just as loud the straining sound of the cord on dusks bow. the sound made him flinch, but after a moment he had his nerve back "why would you care where I'm going elf?" Jake yelled in the elves face

"our reason doesn't matter, only the answer matters" the cat girl said calmly as possible.

"Im leaving the city walls before dawn to hunt for a kobold army, king be hoping I can kill the lot of them single handedly" Jake said as he stepped down from the slick stone surface of the fountain

"An impossible task even for one as well muscled as he" Lillia said, her usually happy demeanor suddenly covered by a serious face that Dusk and Vann were not used to

"That's what I've been saying all day!" Jake smiled, enjoying being called "well muscled" by someone as pretty as Lillia

"a suicide mission?" Vann said figuring out the situation just as fast as his friends

"did you wrong someone in your kingdom recently?" Lillia said, her piercing green eyes convinced jake to tell the truth

"yea, me father tried to assassinate the king a month or so ago, he failed miserably but the king placed heavy restrictions on my family because of it regardless" Jake said hardly phased by the memory

"so you think we should assist him in this "suicide mission" Lillia?" dusk asked lowering her bow

"That would be my guess, my premonition was foggy at best, but if I was to guess. Yes, you should assist him" Lillia said through a smile

"Then we leave tonight" Vann said sheathing his sickle in its bizarre scabbard


	3. Chapter 3: Midnight

Chapter3:

midnight

Jake was hesitant at first, but after Lillia explained to him how much help Vann and Dusk could be, he quickly agreed to have them join him. Jake said for them to meet back at the fountain after they had gotten a few supplies together, Jake said he had to go get his equipment together and promptly left back towards his residence near the castle.

"is this really a wise idea sis?" dusk asked Lillia as they walked back towards the caravan

"I think we can trust him, I'm just worried about the three of you taking on a whole army of kobolds. Dragon people can be quite strong no matter how small they are" Lillia said teasingly to Dusk and Vann, although she did bring up a good point

"Kobolds are little, but in a large number they can be terrifying" Vann said to the two girls to his left "and don't worry Lillia, its going to be the four of us"

"four?...I cant go with you, I would be useless in combat" Lillia said frazzled by the idea

"no, I meant were taking Marilia with us" Vann said laughing for the first time in what seemed like ages dusk joined in the laughter, Lillia just felt embarrassed

Dusk stood in the half of the wagon that she and Lillia shared as a bedroom, a dividing wall and a small wooden door separated them from what was Vann and Marilia's room. The wagon itself was only about ten or twelve feet long so their shared bedroom was much more cramped then the room Vann shared with Marilia.

"You haven't worn those in so long I almost forgot you owned them" Lillia said sitting on the bed that hung above dusks on their small wooden bunk bed. Dusk stood getting dressed in front of the mirror that sat on one wall of their half of the wagon. She had changed out of her acrobats uniform and put back on her studded leather armor, and her travellers clothes, clothing she hadn't worn sense she had joined the circus two years ago. The tatters and scratches in the armor she remembered were all still there, the holes from arrows, the burn marks, its almost as if she had never left her life with the guild….a terrible thought

"I wish I had different armor to wear. This brings back some rather painful memories" dusk said as she buttoned up the last of her outfit. Her bow now swung over her shoulder, her short sword in its holster at her hip.

"there is no time to wish" Vann said as he opened the door, now wearing the leather shoulder and arm guards he had worn when him and dusk met in that alley way. His falchion strapped neatly to his back, and his sickle in its scabbard at his hip. "we are supposed to meet Jake back at the fountain momentarily, are you ready to go?" Vann said turned to leave the wagon

"momentarily" she said as she reached down and grabbed a knapsack that sat by her bed, it was made of a material that Vann had never encountered before and had runes and symbols around the opening at the top of the bag

"Important?" Vann asked now intrigued by the clearly magical bag dusk had slung over her shoulder

"I don't think that's any of your business" dusk said with a smirk, as she began pulling her archery gloves over her paws "so come on, go grab Marilia and lets get going" dusk said as she fastened the last button on her gloves

The three sat waiting for a long time in the dim light of the town square, Dusk now looking like the Thief she knew she was born to be, a feeling she neither disliked, or enjoyed. Vann sat with Marilia at his feet; the orange furred cheetah had a vest of hide armor on, to dusk it looked like rhinos hide or some other rough skinned animal. Across Marilia's back was strapped a bow, a quiver of arrows and Vann's bedroll.

"Why the bedroll? Think were gonna be gone that long?" Dusk asked

"we're hunting kobold, they aren't particularly strong, but they are plentiful. So I know its going to be a decent hike from the city gates to where ever they are hiding." Vann said as he petted at marilias ears

"Your point?" dusk said her eyes narrowing

"if they were closer then a few hours to the town, the army as a whole would have attacked them by now" Vann said, he turned away from dusk his eyes affixed on the suit of armor waddling towards them "you've got to be kidding me?" Vann said with a laugh

"what's so funny sorcerer? Sad you can't wear armor this nice?" Jake said as he shuffled over to the group sitting on the fountain

"I'm not a sorcerer, my people call me a druid" Vann said in retort to the common misconception

"I don't get the difference" Jake said as he started heading towards the city gate, the three following close behind

"I don't get my power from a natural talent or a god's power, or even from difficult study. I draw my power from the ground under our feet, from the trees, from the animals, these are where I draw my magic" Vann said trying to explain his heritage

"Like I said I don't get the difference" jake said as they got to where the guards that were on duty this late, watch over the gateway. They waited until the guard noticed they were there

"where do you three think you're going?" the guard yelled down to them from his post above the gate

"we are on special order by king Des'rel " Jake called up to the man who sat on top of the wall

"no one comes in, no one goes out" he yelled back to Jake "you know the rules!"

There were two soft thumps just before the guard fell back over the wall onto the street in front of them

"WHAT THE HELL!" Jake yelled as the body lay with two arrows through his head and chest respectively. He looked back and saw Dusk had her bow out and had already loaded another bolt onto the cable

"he was in our way, now we can leave" Dusk said nonchalantly

"YOU JUST KILLED A GUARD!" Jake said now yelling at the top of his lungs

"Dusk has a point though, with him out of the way now we can leave without worrying about any questions being asked" Vann said pulling the two arrows from the corpse and handing them back to dusk

"damned elves" Jake said under his breath, struggling to understand how killing someone who was a protector of their kingdom was a good thing in any situation

"I'm the one who shot him" dusk said, clearly hearing Jake with her giant feline ears. "if you want to say damned anyone, say damned cat"

"but you're a girl" Jake said looking oddly confused

"…and?" dusk said, not seeing jakes logic

"it's the knights code, I can never hurt a lady, and I should never be terse with one either" Jake said sounding a lot less idiotic then he had sense they had met him. Dusk just turned from him, feeling an odd remembrance of the time when she had met Vann, naïve to the lack of morals that plagues this world. By this point, Vann had taken the keys to the gate off the guard, and they began making their way out into the wilderness.

"we've been traveling for hours!" Jake yelled, holding a torch high above his head

"its not our fault that you chose to wear that heavy armor and bring all of that equipment along with you now is it?" dusk said clearly irritated by the large mans complaining. They had made good time and were already a half dozen miles from the city. The entire time dusk and Vann tried to put up with the giant oaf of a fighter dragging his way behind them, a heavy suit of armor on and a few dozen weapons strapped to his back. And all the while dusk and Vann could hear the monsters moving around them staying far enough from the fire light so that they wouldn't be seen.

"its not my fault that I hate being stabbed" jake said in retort to dusk mocking his heavy suit of armor.

"well you have to be stabbed a few times to know you don't like it" Vann said, a rather odd laugh following his words.

"im sure an elf who doesn't even wear a shirt and whose pet cat wears more armor then him would certainly know what being stabbed was like" Jake said, silently wanting to stab Vann

"we need to stop for the night" Vann said walking towards a gigantic tree, its roots pulling up from the ground each as thick as a man's waist.

"why?" dusk said almost angry, Vann didn't reply, he merely walked towards the tree and hooked his sickle into its bark, beginning his climb up the structure. Marilia walked towards dusk and growled low, in a language only she could understand, the two felines held a quite conversation, secret from everyone else for a moment. Dusk then nodded her head, and she too made her way towards the tree truck, preparing to climb the tree as Vann was.

"oh come one, I can't climb that thing!" Jake said, although he could hardly move at all, with easily more than a hundred pounds of equipment tied to him.

"trust us friend, you don't want to stay down there" Vann said from the top of the tree, now reclining across one of its many thick branches preparing to relax his way into the short sleep that was so typical of elves. Dusk pulled up close behind finding a branch much higher up, she pulled her bow from her shoulder and readied it

"I have first watch, so put out that torch and hurry and get up here" Dusk said, her cat eyes able to make out the moving shapes all around them, she knew that they were safe as long as they stayed together, no monster would be dumb enough to take on a band of warriors alone. But if Jake didn't get up here she knew they were going to be in trouble.

"I've told you before, I can't get up there with me armor on, and I am not leaving it down here on the forest floor to be stolen by some damned orcs!" Jake yelled, far louder then she would have preferred, for at that very moment dusk caught a glimpse of something running from the shadows around their campsite towards Jake. Dusk pulled the cord on her bow back and loaded an arrow ready to fire at the monster, but Vann place a hand over hers.

"Don't fire, I want to show Jake that he has to listen to us from now on, that if he is to travel with us he must learn to also listen to us." Vann said, his eyes glowing with that same internal fire dusk had come to know meant that a battle was soon at hand.

Jake, being a human, didn't have the ability to see in the night like Vann and Dusk could, and had no idea how to react when he saw the ten foot tall, rubbery skinned monster running towards him. Its nose was almost a foot long and its hair was gnarled dreads of green vines. Jake stood afraid for his life for a moment. He quickly threw off his pack, grabbing his long sword and his knight's shield, and prepared to fight the monster head on. The monster hit him running and knocked him 5 feet from where he stood and into the side of the tree, a few fruit falling from its branches at the impact. He turned to slash at the creature, but it swatted his sword away like it was nothing. Jakes sword whirled through the air and landed many feet away, jakes pack was now behind the monster, and jake was left with only his shield.

Dusk was laughing at the man's inexperience fighting monsters. It was clear to her that he had only been trained to fight, and that he had never seen actual combat until today.

"think he'll survive?" Dusk asked

"Of course, we wouldn't let someone as important to us as he be slain by an ordinary troll, now would we dusk?" Vann said pulling his falchion from its scabbard, his eyes glowing like stars. Jake on the other hand was not as optimistic; he had turned and ran from the monster. He now coward under a set of the trees roots, resting his shield on top hoping that if the monster couldn't see him, that it would simply turn and leave. The troll of course would not turn and flee, it was hungry and there was a delicious snack wrapped in a nice little suit of armor waiting for it under that shell of a shield.

The troll threw its arms wildly at the shield, jake had been dumb enough to keep his arm locked into the shield, and with each blow he could feel she shield bending back into his arm. Jake began to scream wildly as he felt his arm breaking under the crushing blows of the trolls. His shield now was so covered in dents and dings that it hardly resembled his shield anymore. Finally the troll was fed up and grabbed the shield by its sides, lifting and then slamming the shield against the branches over and over again until the shield ripped right off of its wielders arm. Jakes arm was badly broken and the bone was sticking out of the skin, the shields former harness now nothing more than a strap or two of leather over his broken arm.

"And that dusk, is our cue" Vann said as he lifted a hand full of cloth torn from his vest and wrapped it around the arrow readied in dusks bow. He snapped his fingers and a burst of embers lit the arrow a blaze, dusk raised the bow above her head and steadied her arms as she took aim at the lumbering giant standing over their ally. The arrow flew true and struck into the back of the monsters head. It now ran from Jake trying desperately to pull the flaming death from its body. Vann, Dusk, and Marilia were out of the tree faster than they had imagined possible. Vann ran over the slumped screaming form that was now Jake Bluto.

"Hang on a moment, this is going to hurt."Vann said as he grabbed Jakes hand and placed his other hand on Jakes elbow; he pulled hard and snapped the two bones back together. He then placed his hands, now glowing with the healing light that had surprised dusk so much when she had met him. Jake felt the bone reassembling inside his arm, the hole in his skin healed over and the pain of his arm quickly turn to adrenaline at the thought of slaying this beast.

"Damned Elf" Jake said as he turned and ran for his bag, grabbing his knights claymore and lifting it high above his head "thanks for fixin' me arm. I'd thank you but right now, Imma cut this monster in two!" jake said running towards the monster Vann and Dusk screamed out for him not to but he didn't listen. Jake had lived in the walls of the city his whole life, so surely he had no idea about the regenerative power that trolls possessed. Vann and Dusk were impressed at the shear accuracy of his claim. With his running start his cable like muscles flexed and swung his sword with so much force that he cut a clean line from the monsters head down between his legs, jake had split the monster clean in two. But moments later, to jakes horror, those two halves became two complete trolls.

"what in the-" jake began as the troll to his left quickly smacked him hard enough to send him flying.

"THE DAMN TORCH WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER THEN YOUR SWORD!" Dusk yelled at the top of her lungs. Then the idea hit her, she turned and ran towards the torch that lay burning by where jake had first been struck by the monster. She began pulling tufts of her fur, tying them to her arrows and lighting them ablaze. She fired two at a time, each deadly accurate. Her and Vann had traveled together long enough that he knew that he had to distract the monster long enough to give dusk the time she needed. Within moments twenty or so arrows found purchase in the troll's rubber like hide. The monster fell screaming to the forest floor, quite dead.

"best shot in a hundred miles!" Vann called out to his cat friend.

"Ive done my job, now hurry and do yours, there are monsters on every side of us, waiting for us to make a mistake so they might feed on our corpses!" Dusk yelled back, lighting even more arrows in the torch, readying them incase more trolls would happen to show themselves. Vann slid his sickle into its scabbard placing his other hand on the sword and beginning the chant he had learned decades ago. The words were lyrical and fluid, spoken in the beautiful dialect of the Druids. His white tribal tattoos yet again glowed brightly with the magic he had drawn up from the planet to enchant his blade. Suddenly the blade burst into flames, the magical fire still not burning his hand as he held onto the seething weapon.

"I always love this part" he said with a rare smile as he reared back, readying his attack. Vann leaped forwards, his blade leading his way through the air at frightening speeds. The troll, so taken aback by the sight of fire flying at his comrade and now a warrior flying at him with a sword made of fire, turned and tried to run. When he did turn he was greeted with the sight of a cat holding a bow with a ball of fire on the end of the arrow loaded in said bow. Before he had a chance to formulate a plan, he felt the bottom half of his body separate from the top half as the flaming falchion ripped through him. Vann instinctively slipped his sickle from its sheath and beheaded the Trolls upper half; he then turned again and slid his sword through the head. Its fire slowly burning the head until it was unrecognizable.

"do you have to end every fight that way?" dusk asked as she went from chunk of body, to chunk of body of the troll corpses and burned them with the torch. She heard shuffling behind her, but she knew after Vann's display someone would have to be crazy to attack them now. Her and Vann cleaned up and burned the corpses; Vann wiped his weapons clean, sheathed both of them, and then made his way to wake up the incapacitated Jake who was slumped unconscious against the tree.

Jake had surely seen the worst of the four, Vann, Dusk, and Marilia hadn't even been hurt in the slightest. Jake had blood running out from underneath his armor in quite a few places, and it was clear to Vann now that he had only fixed one of the numerous broken bones within Jakes body. Vann pressed his hands to the cold steel of jakes armor and his tattoos flared up as light poured from them and from his hands. Jake awoke with a start every wound he had was now vanishing by the earthly magic of the Druid before him.

"many thanks elf" Jake said a fair amount of blood oozing from his mouth as he lifted his helmet off his head and threw it to the ground.

"Finally seeing the error in wearing such armor?" Vann said with a chuckle as he stood up, Jake now fully healed.

"yea, I ain't with a legion of troops anymore, so this armor does me no good" Jake said as he slid off most of the armor, only his shins, chest, and forearms now had the shining armor plating left on them. "Much lighter" Jake said with a smile, his short, scraggly, blond, beard still stained with his blood.

"Well now come-on, let's get up the tree and get some sleep" Vann said landing his sickle yet again in the bark.

"I don't think we'll be getting any sleep tonight" Dusk said, she was the furthest from the party, and now saw the danger that headed their way, Vann turned and saw it quickly enough. A hoard of kobold easily thirty strong, marched their way, in each of their hands a shining short sword, glowing with a magical enchantment of some type.

"king said they had a wizard" Jake said as he saw the orange light of the swords headed their way. "but the cats right, we getting no sleep tonight elf"

Marilia went galloping to Vann's side, and the druid quickly pulled his bow from her back. He volleyed shots into the crowd charging towards them, and with Vann being as unskilled a shot as he was; he only hit a small number of the diminutive dragons. Dusk on the other hand now fired two shots at a time, almost all finding purchase in either an eye or square in the chest. Whole ranks of the fleet now broke rank at the sight of the cats barrage of arrows. Vann finally seeing his opportunity, threw his bow to Jake, Jake promptly snapped it over his knee

"aint no twig gon' slay these dragon folk!" Jake said as he pulled his claymore high above his head

"I don't know Jake, Dusk makes it look pretty easy!" Vann said with a laugh as he ran for the nearest mass of Kobold he could find.

"Damned cat!" Jake yelled as he ran for a hoard of kobold on the opposing side as Vann

"Thank you" Dusk said, taking some sick pleasure in finally being viewed as a worthwhile annoyance to Jake. Marilia came running up aside Dusk, Dusk put her bow over her shoulder and pulled out the short sword on her hip then leapt up on top of the cheetah, which sped quickly towards the mass of kobolds which got ever closer to the group. Dusk slid her sword through the nearest throat, or through the skull of whom ever was closest to her as she sped through the mass of Kobolds on the back of speeding cheetah. She saw Vann beheading more then enough of them to horrify the others attacking him into turning to flee, he didn't let them get far however. Vann slammed his fist against the ground and a thousand gnarled tree roots sprang from the ground and ensnared the fleeing monsters, which he promptly beheaded.

Jake was less graceful then their elven friend in combat, she saw that he swung his sword in large arcs, wiping out four or five at a time, anyone that was left alive after he struck them with his sword, he lifted by the neck and threw into the oncoming hoard of combatants. Dusk herself was like a knight on horseback, jousting towards her prey. She slid her short sword through each of the creatures that stood about as tall as she. She got a few nicks and scrapes but nothing to complain about, she didn't waste time to examine her wounds, and she knew if she had to spend time in open combat with one or more of these beasts that Marilia could get severely wounded in the process. Marilia was more concerned with Dusk then with her own safety however. Marilia didn't like charging into combat, she preferred to take her prey from behind, when they weren't expecting her. Now they had seen her, and they probably knew just how thin her armor and her skin was. Marilia, denying her fear bared her fangs as she flew through the mass of dead, dying or soon to die creatures.

Within a few moments, the four had killed almost the entirety of the attacking force, only three remained, one still ready to fight, the other two running for safety. Jake ran for the vermin grabbing him up by his throat ready to crush the thing with his bare hands.

"calm yourself Jake, we need this one…with him we might learn where this force came from" Vann said stoically as he wiped the drying blood from his blades on his silken pants, their red color now making more sense to Jake. Dusk on the other hand was going from body to body, throwing each of the gleaming short swords into her bag, no matter how many she threw in, there was always room for more. She threw her blood stained sword aside and slid one of these magical blades into her holster, then promptly and without notice from Vann or Jake, made her way back to the group standing around the kobold that Vann had tied up.

Jakes massive hands easily encircled the kobolds throat, it squirmed frantically trying to free itself from its certain death. Vann stepped near the small dinosaur like humanoid and placed his sickle just below its chin, its blade glinting in the fire light of the burning troll corpses. Vann spoke quickly

"either you speak common, or that heads coming off" he spoke without a hint of hesitation in his voice.

"I talk I talk" the creature tried to say, it was difficult as jakes hand was nearly crushing its wind pipe. Jake let his hand released the thing and Vann pulled his sickle back, but did not sheath it. The group stood around the creature, Jake his sword in hand, Vann his sickle, and Dusk with her bow ready to release its bolt of death at any moment.

"me's speak common, buts not wells" the Kobold said, it heard a growling behind it and saw Marilia crouching, ready to pounce, her teeth bared standing at his flank. Dusk stepped forwards, the arrow pressing slightly into his skull as she spoke

"where is the rest of your tribe?" Dusk began, her paw still ready to fire at a moments notice

"me's not tells you that" the kobold began, then realizing his mistake he flinched and yelled "ifs mes tell you that, you kills me friendses"

Vann stepped forward this time, his sickle still in his hand. He leaned down and spoke into the kobolds ear

"yes we will kills them, but if you tell us where they are, we'll let you go…and you can forget about all of this." Vann said, none of his typical sarcasm in his voice a big plastered smile on his face. The kobold looked elated.

"my friends ins a smalliest camping site to the north, they only a little while away from heres, Im sures you could make it soon soon. No problems" the kobold said, his common broken at best

"no problems at all" Vann said still crouching by the creature.

"you unties me now?" the kobold asked, happy as could be

"gladly" Vann said raising his sickle

The kobold didn't even know what happened as the sickle sliced through his throat to fast to comprehend, he couldn't even comprehend it as his head hit the ground.


	4. Chapter 4: Dawn

Chapter 4

Dawn

"why do you always have to cut their heads off?" Jake asked as the sun just started to break the horizon, the sky now a dark purple, still dark enough that Jake had difficulty seeing, but light enough that Vann and Dusk could see the camp ground just over the ridge ahead of them

"I cut their heads off because that way they feel no pain, it's a polite way to go out" Vann said, his voice low, almost a whisper. They had not slept at all during the night and it was beginning to show.

"that doesn't sound polite at all, if you ever fight me, please fight me like a man would" Jake said not understanding they needed to be quiet. Vann laughed at the thought

"In a one on one fight sir, your head would be rolling across the floor before you even unsheathed your sword" Vann said a laugh in his voice

"….Damned elves" Jake said after a pause. They surely had made it all the way to camp site, a great sound emanated from over the ridge. Dusk put it upon herself to go and scope out the place, as she was the quietest of the group, next to Marilia, but Marilia's growling to explain what she had seen to Dusk would surely wake the campsite. Dusk sheathed her glowing orange sword and ran, her padded feet not even making a sound as she went. She observed the camp; there were four or five lean-to style cabins, each with four to five guards at the opening. In the middle of the camp were easily fifty kobolds all amassed around a kobold wearing ceremonial robes. They chanted and danced wildly. Dusks mud colored cloak hid her well enough in the low light of their camp fires, and the slowly raising sun, but not well enough it would seem. A single guard caught a glimpse of her white furred face and began making his way to her.

Dusk knew from years in the city to never panic when something like this happens, she stayed calm and moved quickly behind one of the stacks of supplies by one of the cabins, she crouched low and pulled her sword from its sheath. The kobold came around the corner not seeing her; she sprang for him, placing her paw over its mouth.

"well if Vann can do it, I don't see why I cant" she said in a low growl, she placed her sword over his throat and pulled hard, harder then she had ever had to, it didn't seem like it would go through but the sword eventually found purchase and wedging its way between the kobolds spinal column. As his head left his body a great flurry of blood sprayed all over her, and the ground around her. Dusk decided she had overstayed her welcome, and took off as fast as her padded feet would take her.

The rest of her group still waited behind the ridge, Dusk ran fast and was reunited with them soon enough.

"that's a lot of blood!" Vann said finding it hard to keep his voice to a whisper and sure enough, Dusks usual pearl white fur was almost cherry red, her mud cloak now almost burgundy in color.

"What the hell happened?" Jake said, realizing the possible repercussions of what could have happened, and he quickly unsheathed his claymore.

"Well I did get a good look at the camp before anything went wrong, there are roughly forty to fifty in the middle of the camp, and performing some ritual around what I would guess is that wizard Jake is hunting for" Dusk began "but I got spotted and had to behead the damn thing to keep from it telling everyone where I was"

"you cut slowly didn't you" Vann said with a knowing tone, He, like Jake knew what was about to begin, Vann now showing the tale tale flame in his eyes as he pulled his sickle from its sheath and his falchion along with it.

"Well it's a lot harder then you make it look" dusk said with a smile as she sheathed her sword and pulled her bow from her shoulder. They heard a loud scream from the camp ahead of them and knew that someone had found the gored body of the creature that dusk had slain, The chanting stopping suddenly after the cries of terror.

"okay so here's the plan, me and Jake are going to go in from the left and right side of the camp. Dusk sit back here with Marilia, and snipe anything that looks like it might get in our way, and Marilia, if someone tries to hurt you or Dusk, tear their head off!" Vann said holding his sickle up for clarification. Dusk pulled herself up over the crest of the ridge just high enough that she could aim properly, and hopefully low enough that she couldn't be spotted, Marilia in a low pouncing position to her left. Dusk saw Vann, silent as death run along the right side of the camp, not a guard spotting him. Jake ran loudly a cry to his god, Kord, as he flew head first into a mass of Kobolds, which he soon decimated with his giant blade, bits and chunks of small dragon corpses flying into the air around him. Vann, knowing their cover blown ran into the mix as well.

Vann held his arms wide, hoping that anyone seeing would think he was going to fight hand to hand with these vermin. He quickly fell into a roll, a wheel of fire making its way around his body, when he jumped from the roll a wheel of fire went flying into the nearest cabin. Kobolds running from it as fast as their burning bodies could carry them. Vann came slamming to the ground, his sickle back in its sheath, his fist hammering the floor. His spell raised a thousand vines that entangled all the kobold that ran from the cabin, now entombed in the flaming wreckage. Vann stood drawing his sickle again, his tattoo engorged body glowing brighter then the flames ahead of him.

Jake took a more direct approach, slamming his sword through all four guards in front of one of the cabins in a single swing. He ran into the building, more kobolds turning to try and flee then those that stayed to fight. Those that did were greeted with cold steel through their midsection. Jake ran to the middle of the camp, hoping to end this quick and slay the wizard. Instead he was met with a small army of kobolds, easily bigger then the force that had attacked the camp the night before. He readied his first strike, but just before he swung at the leading beast. The beast fell, an arrow through his skull. Arrows now rained down on the wall of kobolds, Dusk stood over the ridge, firing two at a time into the mass of monsters.

Jake went running now slicing his sword wildly, knowing that dusk as good a shot as Vann had bragged. More then once the creature he threw his sword through had already died by an arrow through the heart or brain. Jake began seeing whole sections at a time of the beasts fall, clutching their chest trying to vainly yank the arrow from their heart. But without warning a group took off running for the hill side running straight for dusk, more still began throwing their crudely formed spears at the hillside hoping to score at the least, a diversion so their allies could kill the archer.

Dusk saw the force coming towards her, but with the volley of spears she had to give up her perch and lay behind the hill, more than a few sailed over the hill landing a few yards in front of where she lay. She got up after the volley had stopped to see the small insurgence only a few feet away. Dusk pulled her bow string back, firing into them as fast as she could pull arrows from her quiver. Not fast enough as one came at her from the side, and began to swing with his glowing sword. He never knew what killed him as Marilia pounced from her hiding spot and gored the body, tearing its head and throwing it to the side. The cheetah stood face drenched in blood.

"we need to get down there, the wizard is hiding, and in my travels I've learned that usually is a bad sign" Marilia began, her voice still growling, although loud enough that it began to frighten the kobolds that Jake and Vann slaughtered. Dusk understood the subtext, and climbed onto the cheetahs elephant hide covered back. Vanns bedroll now acting as her saddle.

"in retrospect I'm glad he brought this" Dusk said with a laugh as she pulled her bow over her shoulder, drawing her sword with one hand, gripping into the cheetahs skin with the other.

"Be gentle, I am a lady after all" Marilia said playfully in the language of cats that only dusk could comprehend.

Vann saw the two cats bolt from the hill side, the sword glowing like the coals of a fire, now looked like a bolt of lightning as it flew into the fray that Jake was still laying into with his claymore. Vann got a running start, and sheathed his Falchion and sickle in one smooth motion. He threw his vest off, screaming as the pain in his body began to peak. He began to shift his form, slowly at first, hair shooting from his arms, his face twisting and contorting. Then very quickly, his whole form transforming into that of a wild black bear, his tattoos now no more than white glowing lines through the fur. His ears still jingling like two tambourines.

Jake screamed at the site of a thousand pound bear running towards him, Dusk suddenly darted beside him.

"do you see that bear, that's Vann, so be careful that you don't hurt him, got it!" Dusk said as she charged back into battle, her and the cheetah now drenched in red. Jake stood dumbfounded as the bear tore and ripped at the opposing side of the Kobold hoard. He saw the flaming white eyes and knew for sure that this is what Vann meant when explaining the difference between himself and a wizard earlier, a wizard could never transform into something this primeval….at least Jake hoped that was true.

/ Dusk didn't even attempt to steer Marilia, she trusted the felines instincts well enough, carrying her from one batch of soon to die monsters to the next, her swords fiery glow grew even stronger as it ripped and tore through the leathery hide of the Kobold. Vann, now a wild black bear ripped and clawed his way through the diminishing skirmish, Jake now was having trouble finding Kobold left alive. The three met in the middle, Vann now slumping back into the tanned, red haired elf they knew. His pants appeared as if by magic, or should we say by magic, as he transformed back, his falchion still on his back his sickle still at his hip. Marilia held his vest in her mouth, which Vann promptly retrieved. His body finally stopped glowing, and Vann let out a sigh of relief.

"okay, why didn't you say before you could do that?" Jake asked stunned by the magic that this druid actually possessed.

"never got brought up I guess." Vann said, his voice slowed by the panting of exhaustion "Plus it takes a lot out of me, I can only do that a few times a day" Vann continued. The four now heard a jingling and a chanting from the hill side that dusk had used for cover. They turned and saw the kobolds wizard, in his bright blue robes and large ceremonial headdress. He held his hands out, and chanted in a language that sounded like the babblings of a baby. Suddenly above them they heard a flapping and a screaming. They turned their heads to the sky and saw it, a massive dragon like creature.

"well, I guess I still have some fight left in me" dusk said atop the growling cheetah she now used as her mount.

"what the hell is that!" Jake roared, sword in hand

"a wyvern" Vann said, unsheathing his falchion and sickle "looks like there's more fun to be had here" His body beginning to glow with that familiar white heat.


	5. Chapter 5: Day Break

Chapter 5

Day break

The group now battered and bruised from slaughtering the kobold army, now stared overhead at the giant hovering monster. It was gigantic compared to anything they had fought up to this point, with its giant bat like wings, its dragon like head, and its wicked tail spike lashing back and forth, poisonous venom flying from it as it went. Vann knew clearly what it was, a stupid distant cousin to the dragon.

"stay away from its talons, if it grabs you, it will sting you, and I don't have enough energy left in me to neutralize it." Vann said, his voice ragged with exhaustion

"You're fuckin' kidding me right?" Jake said, clearly scared now that a dragon was staring him in the face. Vann didn't reply, Dusk knew already that Vann's magic only went so far and that if any of them got stung this far from the city, they're chances of survival were slim to say the least. She pulled her bow from her shoulder, and took aim at the beast above their head.

"Don't whine Jake! Just kill the damn thing!" Dusk yelled as she fired arrow after arrow up into the air into the wyvern's wings. The beast was massive and stupid, and hardly noticed the tiny arrows protruding from the membrane that spanned his winged arms. All it noticed was food! it took a running dive at Vann, who dodged its talons but just barely. As it flew towards Vann, Dusk took a shot and caught it square in the eye. The shot took it by surprise and it went reeling sending it falling into some of the remains of the cabin that Vann had burnt down. Jake was on it before it knew what was happening, he had planned to jam his sword into the beast before it regained its composure, end this quickly so he could find the wizard and kill him before he got too far. The wyvern had other plans though.

The wyvern, with its one good eye saw the man running towards him, claymore held high above his head. It lunged towards him, wedging its long neck between the man's ankles and lifting him high into the air as it took off into the skies. Jake now was riding atop the wyvern, facing the wrong direction and thoroughly confused by the situation. Jake panicked a little but desperately tried to enact his plan and wedge his sword into the dragon's spine. He raised his claymore high enough that the blade touched the skin of the wyvern. Now wyverns might be stupid, but nothing is stupid enough to not try and avoid a blade in their neck.

The wyvern whipped its body high, going into a loop, rolling end over end. Jake panicked, wrapping both arms around the monsters neck so he wouldn't fall the forty or so feet to the ground, and in the process of ensuring his safety, he dropped his sword. He watched it fall and tumble to the ground, landing blade first in the ground…only a few inches from Vann.

"Watch where you drop stuff!" Vann yelled up to Jake. Vann had consciously been biding his time. He could transform again, but the best he could manage was an eagle or some other bird of prey, and he knew that in an aerial fight, an eagle versus a wyvern was a rather one sided fight. He tried to find the power within himself to call on some spell that might actually hurt the thing! Dusk saw Vann out of the corner of her eye, his tattooed body beginning to glow, she then heard Marilia begin to growl below her, she was much louder, and much angrier then she had heard Marilia growl sense Dusk had met the cheetah.

Vann's usual white internal fire was now a light blue, his skin looked like frosted glass as he raised his hand high into the air aiming at the sky above the wyvern. His mouth went into the familiar ramblings he spoke before every spell he cast, a language that only druids can learn. Teaching their language to others is a sin of the highest order, a druid can even have his power sealed if he consciously teaches another soul the language. Though dusk was used to hearing the words, she knew she could never learn its many inflections and its subtle intonation just from listening to it.

Suddenly jets of clouds and ice erupted from the palm of Vann's hand. A cloud of roughly forty feet hovered over the wyvern, Jake still gripping at its skin. As quick as it appeared it burst, chunks of ice some the size of small stones rained down upon him and the wyvern. The beast started to panic and shake violently. It whipped its head back, its long neck arching and trying to bite at the man in half plate that road atop it. Jake had no sword and was struck more then once by Vann's hailstorm that was loosed above him, so he wasn't calm by any stretch of the imagination. Jake started to gain some composure though as he did his best to face the correct direction, lifting himself enough to turn about now facing the same direction as the Wyvern.

"Damn you elf!" Jake yelled, his skin now covered in shards of broken ice. Jake now sat on the wyverns neck the same way a man on horseback rides a horse, and though Jake had learned relatively little in his short life, he had learned to ride a horse and so he now had no problem gripping onto the wyvern as it soared through the air. Jakes one problem was that he couldn't keep fighting it, all he had were his bare hands, and against the rough dragon hide of this beast they did nothing. If only he had kept the gauntlets to his armor! The monster now knew it couldn't throw the man off, as Jake held on through tight turns and even the few loops the monster took. Jake was a skilled rider and wasn't about to fall off on accident.

The monster now took on a new tactic. It whipped its head back and started to bite at jake directly. Jake dodged them a few times, but he knew that sitting here unarmed he had few options. Either he could fall the fifty or so feet to the ground, or face the fangs of this beast! He chose the latter. The beast whipped back again and unexpectedly Jake grabbed the monsters head! one hand wedged under the lip of its top jaw and his other hand did the same to the bottom, his cable like muscles flexing, growing red as they were engorged with blood.

The human they had met a day ago, whom they believed was stupid as dirt and after the fight with the troll believed was so useless in combat. Vann and Dusk watched dumbfounded as Jakes arms flexed hard enough to tare the bottom jaw clean off the wyvern. The beast reeled about trying to buck Jake from its body, Jake had other plans though. Jake stood then, both feet resting uneasily on the thin neck of the beast. He angrily shoved his boot against the base of its skull. He reached forward and grabbed either side of the beasts top jaw, Its saw like teeth cutting his hands here and there as they went. He used his foot as a fulcrum point and bent the monsters head back, further and further until he heard a crack as the bone snapped off of the spine. The beast now quite dead plummeted to the ground, Jake jumping from it, landing a few feet from Vann and Dusk, he slid to a stop and stared at the two of them.

"where'd the wizard go?" Jake said, his armor visibly dented by the hail storm that Vann had loosed above him.

"…how? Why didn't you fight like that yesterday?" Dusk said, stuttering trying to comprehend what had just happened.

"I tried, but that troll kept hitting me in the head, that's my weak point ya know." Jake said as he went over and pulled his claymore from the ground. "now tell me, where'd that wizard go?" he asked again.

"we were a little preoccupied with the wyvern. So to be honest, we don't know where he went…" dusk said after a moment of silence, the three stood for a moment. Dusk had dismounted Marilia at the beginning of the encounter, and didn't know where exactly the cheetah had went. Marilia walked over to dusks side, and spoke in her language again, the two spoke for a few moments before dusk turned to Vann

"can you transform again?" Dusk began, then Vann understood the plan almost immediately. He nodded in accordance. "we need you to fly up as high as you can, and trail what ever looks like that damned kobold!" dusk said a renewed smile upon her face. Marilia growled low "Marilia said that she will lead us to where ever you land; she says your scent is easy enough to follow." Dusk said with a laugh, a laugh she shared with Jake and Vann both. Vann took off his vest and handed it to Dusk. They saw his body twist and contort. They heard Vann scream as his mouth transformed into a beak, and his arms loosed a plethora of feathers. His body transformed quickly after that, and the screams stopped. His silk pants, his sickle and even the falchion on his back disappeared into his body as he transformed into the form of a giant eagle, which quickly launched into the air.

Jake stood next to Marilia and patted her on the head.

"ya know, I thought you were a monster at first, there's nothing like you on this whole continent." Jake said with a smile. "But now I think I wouldn't mind traveling with you, the cat and Vann here." Marilia honestly didn't mind the idea, and she nuzzled her hand against Jakes hand purring lightly as she did. Dusk walked over to them, the stinger from the wyvern's corpse in her paw.

"Enough of this, we need to start moving, the fight with the kobolds and the wyvern have wasted much of the day. It will be nightfall in a few hours, so come on….Marilia lead us to Vann" Dusk said, shoving the stinger into the bag at her hip. Jake eyed her for a moment wondering why the bag hadn't expanded any when she put the giant scorpion like appendage into it. Jake was a commoner and hated magic, he found it frightening and up until he met Vann believed all magic users were nothing but tricksters and men to weak to fight with their own hands.

Marilia did as she was told, she took off into the forest. Looking over her slender shoulders every few minutes to make sure that Dusk and Jake weren't too far behind her. Above them they could clearly see the giant hawk that Vann had become. Over head Vann could clearly see the little Kobold running for his life from the four. His blue robes gave him away, Vann doubted he would even have needed his hawk eyes to see the blasted creature. He ran and ran, Vann saw where he was headed clear enough. He was headed back into the city of Des'Rel. Below him he saw his friends running as fast as they could behind Marilia.


	6. Chapter 6: From Dawn to Dusk

Chapter 6

Dawn to Dusk

The sun started to fall below the horizon as Vann's abilities that allowed him to transform began to wear thin. He felt his body changing from that of the eagle back into that of his true form. He tried to glide back down to the forest floor, but didn't have the strength and hit the ground hard as he had clearly overstayed his welcome in that body. Marilia sped to Vann's aid, leading Dusk and Jake as she ran. Vann had hit the ground, and swiftly fallen unconscious.

"is he going to be okay?" Jake said worried as he looked at his companion's condition. Jake looked to the short Cat folk standing beside Marilia, who was arm deep in her bag, the same bag that Jake now knew to be magic. From it she produced a green glass bottle, dark yellow liquid inside it. She walked gingerly over to Vann and lifted his head up from the ground. She lifted the bottle to her lips and took a short swig, remarked that it tasted terrible and then proceeded to pour some in Vann's mouth and force his unconscious form to swallow the concoction.

Vann was up with a start, coughing and hacking, as if he as fighting the beverage.

"what did you give him?" Jake asked, worrying that the rouge might have poisoned Vann. His worrys were misplaced however as Vann now stood, awake, and more alive then ever in front of them.

"hes inside the city" Vann began wiping his lips "I tried flying up higher and higher to see if I could see where exactly within its walls he is, but alas I can not" Vann steadied himself and walked over towards Dusk.

"thank you for the healing potion, I worry how exactly you acquired the money for it, but im glad you had it nonetheless." Vann said, his stoic demeanor returning. Dusk smiled slightly, her tail wagging gave away that although she was devious she kept close friends safety and wellbeing to be as much as if not more important then her own. She didn't have long to feel content though, Marilia was off again, aiming towards the city.

The four reached the city walls just as the sky turned a bright pink to compliment the setting sun. the city beyond the walls, eerily quiet to compliment the serene scene.

"there aren't any guards on patrol" Jake said slowly. Bringing his claymore from its scabbard, he slowed his pace. "Vann, I don't know how much magic you have left at your disposal, but keep it at the ready, something's definitely up!" Vann nodded, and had his blades and out and ready at his sides, Dusk followed suit pulling her bow string taut an arrow resting on its string. Surely enough, jake was right. as they approached the city walls, the gates were all open and there wasn't a guard on patrol anywhere along the city wall, and none watching the gate entrance either, something really was wrong.

They knew at once that something was wrong as a spear the thickness of a man's arm flew over the gates and sailed out across the sky towards the group. Jake was the first to yell it as the bolt soared towards them.

"BALLISTA!" the human yelled, his words rang true enough, the guards were there, but not for the reasons that they had been before. Tonight, they were there to kill! The group ran, but not away from the city, but towards it. Dusk now sat atop Marilia, to her left ran Vann his blades at his side and his head held low, Jake ran his monstrously large sword was already out and swinging. All the bolts from the Ballista missed them, as the archers couldn't aim below the city walls they were mounted on. The guards knew this instantly and jumped from the wall, their armor the same as jakes had been the day prior when they had left the city. As soon as the party had run into the city, four guards were upon them.

"What do we do now Jake?" Vann yelled, pulling his swords up, his tattoo laden body glowing white. Luckily Jake was quick to answer, and he answered with one word, and one action.

"KILL!" was all that Jake said before spinning on his heels and launching his sword up into the left armpit of the guard closest to him. Jakes blade popped back out of the armor by the right side of the man's neck, blood spraying as it appeared. Vann quickly followed suit, his hooked sickle sliced inside the thick steel plating of the suits of armor. His other hand pressed itself to the chest plate of the suit of armor as his bodies glowing steadily increased. His sickle held the guard in place as his worldly magic began heating the armor, hotter and hotter until the guard within went limp and fell to the street. Dusk didn't have the problem that her allies did, her bolts flew through steel as well as anything else, and she took out the two that Vann and Jake didn't kill within moments of them jumping from their perch atop the guard tower.

"We don't have time for this!" Dusk yelled, her shrill cat like voice bringing the men out of their frenzied rampage. Marilia growled low and the group began running towards the town square. The city was quiet; all the windows and doors were boarded up. Men, women, and children watched from the windows of their homes as Vann, Jake, Dusk and Marilia ran towards the center of their helpless city. The city militia waited for them there, in the center of them, standing atop the fountain that rested in the center of the market standing in his blue robes and his headdress, was the kobold wizard, his staff held high. Jake and Vann skidded to a halt at this sight, Marilia on the other hand launched over the crowd, carrying with her a very angry catfolk whose short sword was aimed square at the wizards heart!

The two cats missed their mark however as they flew through the image of the wizard and landed on the other side of the fountain, heavily armored soldiers on every side of them.

"VANN!" Dusk yelled, knowing that in all their travels when ever Dusk ran into a situation like this, he had an answer waiting in the wings, ready to save both of their lives. Sure enough, she knew Vann well. The elf dodged his way through the onslaught of swords and pole arm and jumped atop the fountain, His fist making contact before his feet. A flurry of vines and thick tree roots flew up through the cobblestone streets and entangled the guards. Vann knew this was only temporary, as the guards would quickly cut through the cable like vines quick enough. Jake ran to the side of the fountain and yelled to Dusk who was involved with what he could only guess was a rather in-depth conversation with Marilia.

"Marilia says the warehouse ahead of us smells" Dusk said raising her paw to point to a rather drab looking old building that faced the north end of the market square they now stood in "she says it stinks like kobolds!" Vann and Jake needed no more of an invitation, they leapt over to where Dusk stood, as she was sitting atop Marilia only a few feet from the buildings door. Vann walked to her side

"you stay here and watch out for us, Marilia, Jake and I will head inside and take care of this, and after this we can return to the way things were" Vann said, his smile genuine for the first time in a long time. Dusk nodded and hopped off the bedroll that was her saddle when she rode atop Marilia. She pulled her bow from her shoulder and took aim the many entangled guards.

Vann and Jake walked, swords drawn into the warehouse. It was full of old barrels and crates, and over all didn't seem as sinister as they had expected. Marilia immediately bolted up a flight of stairs that rested at the side of the room. Vann and Jake quickly followed the felines lighting fast form. At the top of the stairs was a small room, all that sat within it was a large vase, and an elegant chair. Seated in that chair was Lord Des'rel.

"You bastard!" Jake yelled "you tried to kill me!"

"and it appears I have failed" Des'rel smiled "you and your little circus friends seem to have thwarted my plans"

Vann walked towards the man, sickle in hand "we can end this easy, just hand over the wizard"

"are you really that blind boy!" Des'rel yelled " I hired that wizard, I would never hand him over to a gypsy like you!" as lord Des'rel spoke the Vase at the back of the room transformed into the small blue robed magician, his staff pointed at Jake and Vann.

"you fool!" Vann yelled at the wizard "if you launch a spell in here you will kill all of us!"

"that is what I intend to do elf" the kobold spoke, his voice low and regal…well as low as a kobolds voice can get.

"what! you dare betray me!" Des'rel screamed jumping to his feet

"Do unto others" Jake said with a laugh

"well you already betrayed me, you promised you would protect my people if we we're to attack this city" the kobold said, turning his staff from Vann and Jake, now aiming it square at Des'rel "yet you sent these warriors to kill my whole tribe!" The kobold yelled as a bolt of white energy flew from his rod, vaporizing the power hungry lord right where he stood!

"And as for you!" the kobold screamed as he turned to face Jake and Vann

Dusk had loosed arrows into all of the entangled knights chests. They now were dead carcus's held aloft by the vines and tree roots that Vann had summoned. She could hear screaming from the building above her, and assumed it was just Vann and Jake yelling as they slaughtered the worthless Kobold wizard. She heard a loud bang erupt from above her, moments later she heard another, this time instead of just a banging, she saw fire shooting out of the windows to the small upstairs portion of the warehouse, once, twice, three total explosions!

Dusk was too shocked to speak, her closest friends were inside of there! She shuddered to imagine what had just happened, her ears falling flat against her head. The explosions had loosed globs of fire out of the warehouse windows out into the town, the roofs slowly but surely catching fire, and the entangled bodies of the knights, now entangled by flaming cable like vines. Dusk wanted to run into the warehouse to rescue Vann and Marilia, hell she even wanted to rescue Jake at this point! She couldn't though, she tried, but a beam had fallen from the ceiling and blocked her path into the building. Her eyes welled up with tears, in all the time she had lived the life of a thief, in all the time she had lived as an adventurer, as an explorer. She had never lost the life of someone that mattered to her. She had never lost a friend.

She was pulled out of her trance by a voice, a voice calling to her. It wasn't Vann, or the low growl of Marilia. It was Lilia! Dusk turned and saw that the caravan was still here! They were heading out of the town as fast as possible. Lilia was hanging out of her carts door. Screaming for the diminutive catfolk to run to her

"this is it then" dusk said looking back at the burning building "goodbye Vann" was the last thing she said as she threw her bow over her shoulder, she began running, galloping on all fours as she darted off towards the caravan that was quickly headed for the city gate.

Dusk didn't want to speak; she just lay on Vann's cot. Lilia sat in Vann's chair, the only other piece of furniture in his side of the wagon; she clearly was worried about the catfolk she had adopted as a younger sister. Dusk wouldn't cry, no she was far too proud for that, all she would do was lay there gripping at his sheets.

"Its going to be okay Dusk, trust me on this" Lilia said with her most soothing tone of voice, it didn't matter though, Dusk didn't believe her.

"Vann knew this would happen you know" Lilia told her, desperately trying to pull her sister from this miserable state. It worked this time, as dusk came up in a rush.

"what do you mean he knew this would happen?" dusk cried out, her voice shaking and shrill

"I told Vann that if her left the circus with Jake that you, and his paths would separate" Lilia said, speaking of the fortune she had given Vann, what she had told the animal tamer before he had left to go explore the city with Dusk only a few days before

"you told….you said that to him and he still went?" Dusk said, dumbfounded, it was like the floor had fallen out from under her padded feet.

"this is a step that you both had to take, doing this brings you both closer to your lifes true goal" Lilia said, she always spoke in riddles and usually it didn't bother dusk, but tonight. How in the world could Vann dying ever bring him closer to his goal?

"I know you don't understand now, but think it over for a while, I'm sure that if you give it enough time, all the pieces will start to fall into place for you" Lilia said, a sincere smile draped across her small elven face. Lilia was truly confidant in her prediction, Dusk wasn't sure if she should believe her sister, she had never steered dusk wrong before though…

She knew that without Vann beside her, that Lilia really was the last vestige of the family she had found here in the circus, and she knew now that one day she would… she should set off on her own, its what Lilia, and what Vann would want her to do.


	7. Part 1: Epilogue

Epilogue

His tattooed body now rested against a tree, his companion throughout all of his journeys lay beside him. Their savior was only a human, so he had no knowledge of the proper ways to heal magical inflicted wounds. He had done his best though, and at the very least kept them both from dying. He rested back against the same tree that his friends now lay against, and spoke slowly as he watched the last vestige of his life burn away in a fire that he had rightly brought to the kingdoms doorstep

"well I guess I have no home to go back to now" Jake spoke with a smile, his voice ragged from the hours it had taken him to get out of the city while carrying his friends. Jake heard a stirring beside him and saw Vann sit up, his arm had been heavily burned in the fire and Jake had no idea how to deal with burns other than to bandage them. Vann sat up, his powers had been restored to him during the few hours he was unconscious during their escape from the city. He now rested his hand on his arm, his body glowing as bright as the burning city

"that makes two of us" Vann said, now having healed his burnt flesh back to relative normality turned himself and began healing Marilia, who had been badly seared in the blaze. Her hide armor had been scorched and whole sections of her fur were missing. But as Vann's hands pressed to her body, her skin began returning and her fur began showing up in the burnt regions, at first as little tufts, but then just as quickly as the short glossy coat that was so common of her breed. She sat up with a start

"make that three of us" Jake said with a laugh. Vann turned to begin healing Jake, but his hands were shoved aside by Jake. Vann looked confused at first. But Jake went on to explain

"you saved me quite a bit over the last few days, I don't have a scar to show for it, mans gotta have a few scars to remind himself that he aint invincible" Jake said resting uneasily inside his singed suit of half plate armor. Vann didn't want to push the subject anymore, worrying healing away the burnt flesh would, in some way, hurt the man's knightly pride.

"so where to now?" Jake asked after a long silence, Vann slumped his head back, staring up at the stars, glinting like the fire inside of Vanns own eyes.

"we go where the world takes us" Vann said reaching his hand up in the air, his body glowing a multitude of colors, his skin looking like frosted glass as it did. "because from here on out I don't have her guidance to lead me" Vann spoke softly

"don't have who's guidance?" Jake asked

"she was a women I could have loved, but I didn't dare to…" Vann spoke slowly

"why not, life's short…gotta have fun where you can find it" Jake said, so common was the logic of the humans.

"life is short for you my friend, but for me, it stretches for millennia. And for decades my heart has been tied to another. One who's impact on my life is far felt indeed" Vann said calling up memories of his far off land, his homeland before he travelled here on his quest for his families treasure.

"so why aren't you with her now?" Jake said, now beginning to understand that his new found friend was many, many years his senior.

"because I cannot find her, she was lost to me a long time ago" Vann spoke, clenching his fist, suddenly breaking the glowing aurora of lights, his body now calm and quiet, His tattoos like no more than ink in his skin.

"how will you find her?" Jake asked, growing more and more curious what was running through the desert elf's mind. Vann didn't speak for a long time; instead he raised his sword high into the air. It was an impressive weapon, it wasn't as long as Jakes claymore, but it was only slightly shorter, and its blade was greatly curved, meaning it, in all actuality, was more than likely longer then Jakes claymore. To top it off, the curved blade looked like it was just as heavy as Jakes weapon of choice. The blades flat tip was as wide as Jakes bicep, but the blade narrowed as its long curved blade got closer to the hilt, slimmer and slimmer until it was no wider then his wrist.

The weapons handle was long, marking it as a two handed weapon, but Vann gripped it with one hand. His arms were much slimmer then Jakes, but Vann lifted something so heavy so easily, spinning it, and wielding it so gracefully that it looked like it didn't weigh much more then the small sickle Vann kept at his hip. Finally Vann flipped the sword end over end into the air, catching the handle as it whipped back around.

"I will find the sister to this sword, and it will guide me back to her" Vann said his voice static and melancholy

"Damned elves and your magic" Jake said, a little more than impressed at Vann's impressive display with his sword. Vann leaned his head back and let out a laugh like he hadn't in days at that remark. Jake had noticed over the past few days, that outside of battle Vann seemed sad and lonely, but the moment they ran into combat together he seemed like a child, always smiling, without a care in the world. What a bizarre creature Vann was turning out to be. It was good to see him happy outside of combat though, that much Jake could be sure of.

"yes, us damned elves!" Vann cried out, his voice filled with joy. Vann stopped laughing after sometime and turned to Jake

"so, let's find some way to get our hands on as many of my damned magic items as we can" Vann said a sly smile across his lips. Jake was perplexed

"why?" Jake said confused

"simple, the more magic items we come by, the more likely it is that we will find the one magic item that I seek" Vann said

"Your logic is as crude and straight forward as that cat's was" Jake said with a laugh

"As that cats is" Vann corrected, knowing that their catfolk partner was alive and well, if everything had gone as Lilia had predicted

"Whatever, I do have good news though" Jake said after thinking over the "cat was, cat is" line as best he could. "my family isn't originally from this kingdom, we come from a city a few days from here, they work ferrying unusual cargo from one kingdom to another" Jake said with a smile, Vann did no more then turn his head back towards the sky and smile widely as well

"Looks like I will find you soon enough" Vann said, maybe Lilia was right

"_find the man who's violence will guide you to your goal, find him and you and Dusks life will be changed forever, for the better, though you may separate, it won't be for long, your paths will cross again and again. They will keep crossing as one will climb to greatness for the sake of the world, the other will climb to greatness for the sake of a personal vendetta. Your paths might be one and the same, or might be polar opposites, but do not fear, you both will understand the bigger picture of your lives soon enough"_

That was all Lilia had said to Vann before he had left that night with Dusk to the black crow. Lilia had meant much to him, but never as much as the women he was searching for meant to him, no one could matter that much to him.

"I will find you soon enough, just wait for me"


End file.
